1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a planting device of a garlic clove planter for planting garlic cloves, and more particularly, to a garlic upright-positioning and planting device for planting garlic cloves while maintaining an upright state thereof at the time of planting the garlic cloves.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In general, operations for planting garlic are performed by transporting garlic cloves to a planting field, making furrows for planting the transported garlic cloves, planting the garlic cloves into the furrows, and covering the furrows. Heretofore, such garlic planting operations have been conducted by manual works that need tremendous human labors.
There were problems in that more time and expenses were required for the garlic planting operations conducted by the manual works. Thus, the applicant developed the garlic clove planter capable of overcoming the above problems and filed patent applications with the Korean Intellectual Property Office (see Korean Patent Application Nos. 1998-48914 and 1999-32085).
FIG. 1A schematically shows the whole constitution of a conventional garlic clove planter disclosed in Korean Patent Application No. 1999-32085. The garlic clove planter shown in FIG. 1A is now widely used. The garlic clove planter comprises a digging device 100 for digging and preparing the soil, in which garlic cloves will be planted, using the power transmitted from a power mechanism (not shown) such as a tractor or cultivator; a transport device 110 for seating the garlic clove from a clove storage hopper 111, in which the garlic cloves are contained, one after another and transferring the seated garlic clove using rotational force transmitted from the power mechanism; and a planting device 120 for guiding the garlic clove transferred from the transport device 110 to be postured in an upright position perpendicular to the ground and sequentially planting the garlic clove one after another.
As shown in FIG. 1B, the conventional garlic planting device 120 is constructed to allow a guiding hopper 126 and planting hoppers 127 to be opened and closed through multi-component link mechanisms 123, 124 and sector cams 125 by providing reverse driving force through a plurality of driven gears 122 which are engaged with one another by a driving chain 121.
However, the conventional garlic planting device has a complicated structure in which a posture of the planting hopper is maintained through the plurality of driven gears engaged with one another by the driving chain.
Further, the conventional garlic planting device has a complicated structure in which in order to open the guiding hopper, a link mechanism of the guiding hopper and the sector cams of the planting hoppers are interlocked with one another.
Furthermore, the conventional garlic planting device has a complicated structure in which the planting hoppers are opened and closed by interlocking operation of their respective sector cams and link mechanisms.
Therefore, the present invention is conceived to solve the aforementioned problems in the prior art. An object of the present invention is to provide a garlic upright-positioning and planting device having a simple structure by which a garlic clove can be planted while the garlic clove is kept at its upright posture with a blunt root portion thereof directed toward the ground.
According to an aspect of the present invention for achieving the object, there is provided a garlic planting device for planting garlic cloves while maintaining an upright state thereof, which comprises at least one guiding hopper for guiding a garlic clove with a root portion thereof directed in a downward direction, and a planting means for planting the garlic clove supplied from each of the guiding hoppers. The planting means further comprises a pair of round planting plates rotatably supported at both ends of a fixed shaft; a driving sprocket fixedly coupled on an external surface of one of the planting plates for transmitting driving force from an external power source to the planting plates; a plurality of driven shafts disposed at an equiangular interval between the pair of the planting plates; a plurality of planting hoppers fixed respectively to the plurality of the driven shafts for planting the garlic clove supplied from the guiding hoppers; a sector cam fixed to one side of the fixed shaft for causing the planting hoppers to be opened and closed; and a reverse drive mechanism which is disposed in at least one of the pair of the planting plates and causes the driven shafts to be rotated in a direction opposite to a direction the planting plates rotate such that lower portions of the planting hoppers are always directed toward the ground even though the planting plates rotate.